MOSCOW (XINHUA) - The investment fund Rosemont Seneca, currently managed by Mr Hunter Biden, the son of US President Joe Biden, funded the Pentagon's military biological programme in Ukraine, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Thursday (March 24).

The fund has resources in the amount of at least US$2.4 billion (S$3.26 billion), said General Igor Kirillov, chief of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Defence Forces of the Russian Armed Forces.

The US Agency for International Development, the George Soros Foundation, and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention were also involved in the funding and development of these programmes, he added.

"The incoming documents have allowed us to trace patterns of interaction between US government agencies and Ukrainian biological facilities," he said.

The official added that the defence ministry has official documentation proving that 30 Ukrainian laboratories were involved in military biological activities.

According to Gen Kirillov, 16,000 biological samples have been exported to the United States and its allies from Ukraine.

For example, he said, 4,000 blood samples were taken from servicemen in Lviv, Kharkov, Odessa and Kiev to study the prevalence of antibodies to hantavirus.

"This large-scale screening of the natural immunity of the populations was probably carried out to select the most dangerous biological agents for populations in certain regions," he explained.

He added that dangerous pathogens and their transporters were also exported from Ukraine.

The US government has not made any response to the claim yet.